The Mapmaker's War: A Legend
Atria Books, March 2013
This will be the map of your heart, old woman. In an ancient time, in a faraway land, a young woman named Aoife is allowed a rare apprenticeship to become her kingdom's mapmaker, tasked with charting the entire domain. Traveling beyond its borders, she finds a secretive people who live in peace, among great wealth. They claim to protect a mythic treasure, one connected to the creation of the world. When Aoife reports their existence to her kingdom, the community is targeted as a threat. Attempting to warn them of imminent danger, Aoife is exiled for treason and finds refuge among the very people who had been declared her enemy. With them, she begins a new life surrounded by kindness, equality, and cooperation. But within herself, Aoife has no peace. She cannot share the grief she feels for the home and children she left behind. She cannot bear the warrior scars of the man she comes to love. And when she gives birth to their gifted daughter, Aoife cannot avoid what the child forces her to confront about her past and its truth. On this most important of journeys, there is no map to guide her. In this tale -- her autobiography -- Aoife reveals her pain and joy, and ultimately her transformation.
The Mapmaker's War is a mesmerizing, utterly original adventure about love and loss and the redemptive power of the human spirit. Watch for its epic sequel, The Chronicle of Secret Riven, in 2014.
Hardcover | ISBN: 9781451688887 | Publication Date: March 2013
Reviews:
"Journey to the heart of a fairy-tale land with doomed queens,
epic quests, and enemy kingdoms in The Mapmaker's War. Ronlyn
Domingue's jewel of a book has a big canvas, memorable characters,
and intimate storytelling. You will be swept away by this
otherworldly tale that charts the all-too-human territory between
heartbreak and hope."
-- Deborah Harkness, New York Times bestselling
author of A Discovery of Witches and Shadow of Night
"A map can make sense out of the seen world. But it can also
evoke greed. And what of a map of the heart? Legend, allegory,
fantasy -- this second novel by Domingue entwines genres to cast a
spell upon its reader.... A curious, thought-provoking story about
how the heart's terrain bears charting, too."
-- Kirkus Reviews
"What a stunning, original book this is -- restrained and
sensual, cerebral and lush, always blazingly intelligent, epic and
expansive, yet filled with the most precisely and lovingly
observed details. This is one of the best books I've read in
years. Reminiscent of Margaret Atwood's best work and yet wholly
its own, The Mapmaker's War evokes one of its heroine's
fantastic, world-defining maps: giving lines to human landscapes
as old as myth, seemingly for the first time. You won't be able to
put this book down, and it will take you somewhere you've never
been, leaving you transformed."
-- Carolyn Turgeon, author of Mermaid and The
Fairest of Them All
"The Mapmakers War is an extraordinary tale of a woman's
courage in an ancient Utopian world. Domingue has taken on the
herculean task of inventing a new legend, and the result is a
remarkable novel at once absorbing and heart wrenching, but above
all mesmerizing!"
-- M.J. Rose, internationally bestselling author of
Seduction
"The Mapmaker's War evokes not mere fantasy, but the real
magic I found as a child, reading by flashlight under a blanket.
As then, the story takes me by the hand to exotic lands and noble
people. As it proceeds, I'm reminded of myself as a teen-age girl,
chafing under the restrictions of an established order. Further
on, I'm lead into adulthood. The story keeps me under its spell,
but it fills with adult contradictions, with experiences of
betrayal and regret, with sex and self-knowledge, with the reality
of evil, and all the while, yes, the same old magic. But the magic
has matured, now, redeemed by love and wisdom."
-- Ava Leavell Haymon, author of Why the House Is Made
of Gingerbread: Poems, Winner of the MIAL 2011 Prize for
Poetry
"With an original voice, Ronlyn Domingue takes us into a land of
strange truths and raw beauty. Writing against contemporary norms,
she dares to forge into new territory even as she takes us into an
ancient world. To the place of a red dragon and warm desire. A
world full of love, and hate, and recompense. Domingue has a rare
eye for the honest word and a heart willing to travel where the
story leads. The Mapmaker's War offers us the chance to
reflect on both our sins and saving graces and to believe in the
possibility of a future that holds kindness and understanding as
key. This novel is a celebration of brave women and men, of
expansive vision, and ultimately, of a humanity not easily
denied."
-- River Jordan, nationally bestselling author of Praying
for Strangers and The Miracle of Mercy Land
"Domingue (The Mercy of Thin Air) spices up a threadbare
fantasy plot with well-timed twists and a unique second-person
narrator."
-- Publishers Weekly
